Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Expected

By the time little Suri Cruise is old enough to have thrown her life away in a haze of ill-advised B-list celebrity marriages, scientists say the Arctic will be free of ice.

(Okay, scientists didn’t say that first bit. I’m trying to be more accessible here. Blame Jezebel.)

The latest findings show that Arctic ice is melting even faster than expected. As the Guardian reported,

Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University in Denver which released the figures, said: "It’s amazing. It’s simply fallen off a cliff and we’re still losing ice." The Arctic has now lost about a third of its ice since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, and the rate of loss has accelerated sharply since 2002.

Dr Serreze said: "If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lose all of its ice, then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe.
But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate.

A a full ocean-to-ocean passage can now be made through the waters above Canada, and countries are jockeying for ownership of undersea oil and gas reserves. Seeing as how their claims revolve around such flimasy cases as "showing that a chain of underwater mountains that runs across the region are connected to their respective continental shelves," here’s an idea: how about assigning ownership of those reserves to all of humanity, and kicking back the proceeds to green energy research, subsidies for food prices sent soaring by climate change, and fighting new diseases in freshly tropical places? And then shake out some leftovers for people who’ve been left homeless by rising seas, and local
Inuit whose lifestyles are being radically changed and are stuck givingguided tours to hunters.
Ice-free Arctic could be here in 23 years [The Guardian]Arctic Sea Ice News Fall 2007
[National Snow and Ice Data Center]